Survival Psychology

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Survival Psychology According to John Leach

Author: Catherine Guilbeau

It is an unfortunate truth that disasters, whether natural or man-made, occur and
force people into situations of high anxiety that often lead to death. John Leach,
a psychologist in the field of survival psychology at the University of Lancaster,
has observed, however, that people in these situations often die unnecessarily. This
surprising and seemingly unusual statement has led Leach to pursue the question of
why in an identical survival setting, some people die and others don't. In his studies,
Leach has identified cognitive processes, particularly working memory, which inhibit
one's ability to survive in a situation of extreme anxiety. Leach's findings have
ultimately led to the opinion that "it is not the 'will-to-live,' but the 'won't to
live' that matters" in a survival situation (Survival, 26).

The phenomenon of 'freezing' when faced with a disaster is a new and foundational
concept brought to survival psychology by Leach. Although previously, psychologists
have believed a threatening situation results in either a 'fight' or 'flight' response,
Leach argues 'freezing' is a third response of victims which often leads to unnecessary
deaths. In 2004, Leach conducted an experiment to further understand the causes of
this 'freezing' behavior. Witnesses from maritime and aircraft disasters were interviewed
and asked to discuss the various reactions of other passengers. Although some passengers
took leadership positions and moved in proper evacuation manners, maritime survivors
reported seeing passengers "'sitting in corners, incapable of doing anything,'...while
others seemed to be paralyzed, staring and horrified" or "petrified and could not
be forced to move." Similarly, aircraft survivors reported passengers who were "'behaviorally
inactive'" and others who "were seen to remain in their seats until they became engulfed
in flames" (Why, 3). It is therefore clear from these results that a 'freezing' response
is often elicited from victims in addition to a 'fight' or 'flight' reaction.

From these eye witness accounts, Leach concluded that "the tendency to freeze can
be understood in terms of neurocognitive function" and its relationship to "the time
required to process the several steps between perception and appropriate action."
He explains that working memory, which processes operational information, has important
limitations, particularly that "it can hold only so much information at any given
time," and that "it can process information at a given maximum rate and no faster"
(Why, 5). These limitations become inhibitors to survival when anxiety consumes space
in working memory that is needed to process complex cognitive tasks. As one might
assume, "the more complex the cognitive task, the more expansive the neural circuitry
needed, and the more likely that processing time will exceed" the time a victim has
available. Leach found that a victim not only needs more time for cognitive processing
due to anxiety and complex tasks, but "non-optimal circumstances...may further slow
information processing." He therefore concluded that because the working memory capacity
is limited by anxiety, victims are unable to process complex cognitive operations
quickly enough to react and survive (Why, 6). This cognitive problem, according to
Leach, results in many victims 'freezing' in the face of danger and dying unnecessarily.

In addition to studying 'freezing' behavior, in 2007, Leach questioned the maladaptive
behavior that is often displayed by victims in a disaster. Victims' responses have
been previously observed as often "disorganized, inappropriate to the circumstances,
slow in response or a combination" (Impairment, 643). Additionally, it is understood
that "survival requires the ability to cope under conditions of environmental duress"
and therefore "requires a capacity to interact flexibly with that environment in a
goal-directed manner" which "is dependent upon the ability to control attention" (Impairment,
648). Because of the imperative ability to control attention, Leach's experiment involved
Royal Air Force members being tested three times using sub-components of the Test
of Everyday Attention during a military survival exercise. The attention test was
performed forty eight hours prior to deploying into the field, between twelve and
twenty four hours of first deploying into the field, and seventy two to ninety six
hours after field deployment.

Leach's results indicated that "sustained attention was found to be impaired in the
experimental group" in both the second and third sessions of testing. Additionally,
"the experimental group showed no recovery in performance to their original baseline
measure" when measured ninety six hours after their field deployment (Impairment,
649). Leach again discusses the importance of working memory in survival for it "involves
the application of attention to maintain or suppress information." Therefore, when
in a disaster situation, a victim is forced to use working memory to complete goal
directed tasks necessary for survival while also using it to keep distractions out
and sustain attention. As a result, attentional capacity is often reduced due to sensory
properties in the environment and maladaptive behaviors such as action slips occur.
Leach concludes that the distractions of the disaster consequently cause a victim
to move "away from goal directed tasks and towards stimulus-driven acts." Consequently,
when a victim lacks the attentional capacity to maintain goals, behavior becomes "disorganized,
preservative, or otherwise inappropriate," and most often leads to unnecessary death
(Impairment, 650).

Also in 2007, Leach conducted an experiment involving parachutists to further understand
the restrictions in working memory due to anxiety. In particular, Leach studied 'no
pull fatalities' in hopes to identify why they occur. 'No pull' fatalities take place
when experienced parachutists fail to deploy the emergency parachute after the main
parachute canopy malfunctions. For this experiment, Leach measured the heart rate,
and storage and processing capacities of both novice and experienced parachutists.
Additionally, Leach measured these aspects ten minutes before jumping, immediately
after landing, and on a non-jump day. As expected, the most prominent difference between
the novice and experienced groups occurred in the landing phase. This difference occurred
when "experienced parachutists showed full recovery in operation-span performance
on landing" and novice parachutists performed similarly upon landing as they did before
jumping. The heart rate of both groups, however, was nearly identical upon landing
which does not reflect the differences in their test results. Most interesting, was
the unexpected result that when recalling words as required by their tests, no incorrect
responses were given by either group in the phase ten minutes prior to jumping (Restrictions,
154).

From these results, Leach was able to further understand the affects of anxiety on
working memory and surprisingly on long term memory (LTM) as well. Just as he observed
in previous experiments, Leach found the speed of cognitive processing decreased because
of a reduction in working memory capacity. Consequently, the executive system takes
longer to switch its attention to deploying the emergency parachute and unfortunately,
"the extra time required is insufficient to meet the task." In addition to this speed
issue, the finding that no incorrect responses were given immediately before jumping
suggests that "LTM is not being accessed during threat." Leach suggests the possibility
that a "malfunction of the executive system disables the communication channels linking
working memory to LTM" resulting in "an inability to recall stored information from
LTM and an inability to lay down new information." From this experiment, Leach was
unable to discern whether the slowing of cognitive processes or lack of connection
to the LTM led to 'no pull' fatalities. Regardless of this uncertainty, Leach's further
confirmation of problems in working memory as well as access to LTM, aid in survival
psychologists' search for an answer to the question of why people die when it is unnecessary.

Survival psychology, though a new and mostly undiscovered field, utilizes the benefits
of both a scientific and humanistic approach to understand how people react in disaster
situations. John Leach has conducted numerous experiments to further identify the
limitations of cognitive functioning during times of extreme anxiety in hopes to increase
the number of survivors. Although thus far, Leach has only begun to identify the limitations
in working memory that lead to 'freezing', lack of attentional control, and denial
of access to LTM, innovative ideas to improve chances of survival are already being
discussed. Leach has proposed numerous improvements in training and equipment to help
turn long term memories and complex cognitive tasks into simple cognitive operations
and therefore open the working memory up for thinking. Ultimately, Leach along with
other psychologists, strive to provide individuals with the means to most quickly
and appropriately address a disaster and therefore eliminate the unnecessary deaths
of so many victims.

Works Cited

Leach, John, and Louise Ansell. "Impairment in Attentional Processing in a Field Survival

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